US-Pakistan relations are entering an especially peculiar period, depending on the course taken, the consequences could be quite significant. As a result of the Salala incident last November, Pakistan suspended NATO’s Afghan supply lines and initiated an extensive parliamentary review of its ties with the US. The country has ever since demanded a formal apology for the killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers and cessation of the drone attacks. However, US actions demonstrate that it is planning to do neither.

In the aftermath of the Indian test of Agni V missile and the launch of RISAT-1 satellite, China has successfully lifted two satellites in to space that will support its Beidou global navigation and positioning network. The satellites were sent from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the southwestern province of Sichuan.

China is planning to send three more satellites in to orbit this year as part of Beidou network, and is expecting to complete the system in 2020 with more than 30 orbiters.

Iran has warned US that its deployment of F-22 fighter jets to the United Arab Emirates last week will ‘endanger the region’s security’.

Earlier, Iran’s Defense Minister Amin Vahidi raised the same concern and said, “Such deployments in the region are both harmful and useless. They are mostly done to create a psychological trend and a sense of insecurity in the region.”

The US has deployed an unspecified number of F-22 fighter jets to the al-Dhafra Air Base in UAE.

Twin bombs struck the main city of Dagestan’s in Russia on Thursday, killing 12 and wounding 120 people. The first blast took place in Makhachkala when a car laden with explosives detonated near a post belonging to the traffic police. The second bombing occurred 15 minutes later as people and security personnel gathered at the scene. The attacks came just few days before President Dmitry Medvedev relinquishes power to Vladimir Putin, who had once vowed to wipe out militants.

US-Pakistan relations are entering an especially peculiar period, depending on the course taken, the consequences could be quite significant. As a result of the Salala incident last November, Pakistan suspended NATO’s Afghan supply lines and initiated an extensive parliamentary review of its ties with the US. The country has ever since demanded a formal apology for the killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers and cessation of the drone attacks. However, US actions demonstrate that it is planning to do neither.

Trouble continues to brew in Northern Africa and the Horn of Africa, with fighting escalating in the Yemen, Sudan and South Sudan and Al Qaeda-linked militancy rife in the region. As the nation state system falters in the region, tensions have reawakened along tribal and ethnic lines, as PoliTact forecasts have predicted.

Analysis

Yemen

The situation in the Yemen is deteriorating rapidly, as the new government tries to deal with a growing militant insurgency in the country.